He Let Her Go
by kezztip
Summary: Jackie runs away to her wealthy grandmother in New York after the midseason 7 breakup. Will absence make Hyde's heart grow fonder? What happens when Jackie returns for a secret visit? COMPLETE
1. Default Chapter

Title: He Let Her Go

Disclaimer: Don't own, ain't getting paid

Pairing: J/H

Summary: Set during and after the Season 7 episode "Don't Lie to Me" when J & H break up – what if Jackie had held strong to her convictions? Spoilerish regarding Eric in Chapter 6.

"Please, Steven, just give me some glimmer of hope that you think we could end up together," Jackie pleaded, eyes shiny with unshed tears.

Hyde felt an unfamiliar tightness in his throat at the pain he saw in her face but he could not give her what she wanted. How likely was it that he, Point Place's most badass delinquent would ever end up with the spoiled cheerleader Jackie Burkhart? "I don't know" he replied quietly. He braced himself for the inevitable argument and tear storm, which would inevitably end with either a slammed door and/or torrid make up sex.

However, Jackie's reaction unnerved him more than any tantrum ever could. She replied quietly "Then I can't be with you".

"Jackie, don't threaten me," Hyde retaliated. After all, this was just another one of her battle tactics to worm her way more completely and irrevocably into his life and his heart, right? She had already taken too much ground, putting him at serious risk of vulnerability but he would be damned if he would let his happiness depend on the smile in her mismatched eyes. He refused to admit that maybe he had lost that fight long ago.

"Steven, I'm not," Jackie choked. So this is what its like to have your heart and your dreams shatter simultaneously, she thought numbly. She looked sadly at the man she had loved, manipulated, fought with and learned from in the last two years and gathered together all the strength he had given her. "Well, at least now I know," she said, and there was some relief in finally facing the truth that he would never want the same things from life that she did. At least now she could stop putting her life on hold, waiting for him to change. _Goodbye, _she thought as she turned around and walked out the door.

Jackie tossed her green and yellow beanie onto her bureau with a tired sigh and raked a hand through her perfect tresses, a huge no-no to her hair regime but her distress trumped years of devotion to hair care. She had just returned from the football game which she had attended for the sole purpose of making Steven deeply regret ever letting her go and to demonstrate how completely indifferent she now was to him. After all, this was the proper course to follow when you broke up with someone and a sure-fire method of exorcising him from your heart. However, it had backfired badly on her; her studied nonchalance was no match for his laid-back zen. In fact, he had been most convincing at ignoring her – perhaps he truly was unaffected by their break up? Perhaps he had always considered a girl friend to be a useful accessory for when you wanted to make out or needed some company, but in the long run an expendable item. It would explain why he had refused to advance further than their teenage lust relationship, why he had resisted her prodding into a more mature relationship. _Perhaps_ came an insecure voice inside of her _you just aren't lovable. _No, she countered forcefully, I'm Jackie Burkhart – everyone loves me. _What about your parents? Even they never really loved you – they loved themselves a lot more _replied that annoying inner voice.

Just then Jackie's phone rang and she leaped to answer it – this was one internal dialogue she did not want to have.

"Hello?"

"Jaclyn dear! How are you?" inquired a familiar elderly voice.

"Grandmother?" Jackie gasped.


	2. The Invitation

"Jaclyn dear! How are you?" inquired a familiar elderly voice.

"Grandmother?" Jackie gasped. Jackie's grandmother was not a frequent caller at the Burkhart residence. She was also not in the habit of adding terms of endearment to people's names. In fact, her usual form of addressing Jackie was "You, girl!"

"Of course, dear." replied her out of character relative.

"Did you want to speak to mother?" Jackie guessed.

"Good Lord, no! What, is she back again? Did they run out of alcohol in Mexico?"

This caustic criticism of her daughter sounded more like the grandparent she remembered.

"No, Jackie, I thought it would be nice to call you and have a little chat," enthused her grandmother.

"Um… when have we ever chatted'?"

"Right now," replied Jackie's grandmother with a hint of "warning – danger ahead" in her voice.

"Right, right," Jackie hurriedly replied, racking her brain as to what her scary nanna could want from her. One thing for sure, Elise Mansfield-Jones did not ever call someone to "just chat". Her entire life was lived with fierce purpose and a great many hidden agendas. Jackie had always avoided her grandmother in the same way she would avoid playing on train tracks frequented by an express train.

"So tell me – what is happening in your life? Are you still seeing that… Steven?" came the improbably warm voice of her grandmother.

Jackie briefly wondered when she had ever told her grandmother she was seeing Steven. Still, word did get around in the family, although her little Point Place branch had been somewhat neglected by other members since her father's criminal disgrace.

"Actually… we broke up last week," Jackie replied, trying to check the emotion in her voice.

"Oh, my poor darling – tell me all about it" cooed Elise.

What heartbroken, prone to earbashing girl could resist such an invitation, in spite of the unlikely recipient of her confidences? For the next hour Jackie poured out her heartbreak over the wire as her grandmother made sympathetic noises and reassured her that she had had no choice but to break up with her young man. Really, she had seriously misjudged her grandmother as a heartless tyrant. She was even better to talk to than Donna, whose eyes started to glaze over after the first 10 minutes of a recount of Jackie's latest drama, and who would usually end their session with some stupid remark about trying to see Steven's point of view or giving him more time – I mean, please, what kind of useless advice is that?

"Jackie, I know the very thing to help you to put this whole mess behind you," Elise said in the voice of one who has had a spontaneous brainstorm.

"Really? What?" sniffed Jackie

"You should come and stay with me in New York! The debutante season is just about to begin and you are just at the right age to be presented. I think a few months of shopping, flirting with the most eligible men in the country and attending tea parties and balls will make you forget all about whats-his-name."

"New York?" Jackie repeated dumbly. She had once dreamed of living in New York, back in those deluded days when she had actually thought Michael would become a Captain of Industry and Prince among Men' – they would attend sophisticated dinner parties every night where Michael would sing of his devotion to her by sparkling piano music. Of course, those dreams had changed quite a bit since she started dating Steven. She could not picture him at any kind of party which would require a bow-tie (It's the noose of an oppressive government, man) and if he ever did serenade her it would be Hendrix style on an electric guitar with the amp turned up to 11.

"Jackie? Are you there?" came a sharp voice, interrupting her fantasy.

"Um… yes, of course. Wow, New York! I.. I don't know what to say." While the thought of being pampered and admired held a very strong lure for Jackie, she could not imagine leaving all her friends, especially one particular friend. Except she and Steven weren't friends, not anymore. And even if they were, she could no longer be satisfied with friendship from Steven, not when what she wanted was his heart. Suddenly she imagined what it would be like, hanging out in the basement everyday with the gang, and Steven lounging in his chair, concentrating on the TV and throwing out the odd burn – ignoring her.

"YES" she blurted.

"Oh, wonderful, dear." Really, that dear' was starting to sound more convincing every time she heard it. "Now, when does school finish?"

"In 3 weeks time – but the finals finish this week so I can come next weekend." The sooner I leave, the better, thought Jackie.

"Lovely. I will arrange a flight for you for next Saturday – first class of course."

"OK, thank you so much, Grandmother. I really appreciate the offer," And with that, Jackie hung up the phone and wondered what events she had just set in motion.


	3. Where's Jackie?

"Haven't seen much of Jackie this week," Kelso threw out into the circle, flicking a sly look at Hyde. No reaction, of course. Really, of all his friends who could secretly be a robot, Hyde would be his first choice. Come to think of it, his eyes were red in those photos…

"That's because she's got her finals, dumbass" replied Hyde in a bored voice.

It was the excuse he had been clinging to all week; as soon as her finals were finished, she would be back in the basement and eventually things would go back to normal. After all, their break-up had no real cause. They hadn't cheated on each other, he hadn't forgotten her birthday or anything major. And that fight they had was just more of her feminine hysteria crap that he was quite ready to forgive her for as soon as she realized he would not give in to that kind of emotional extortion. He only had to look back at how obsessed she had been with him that day at the Packers football game to know it would not be long before she would see reason. Although the memory of her heartbroken crying that day when she had thought herself alone still made him want to find her and hold onto her like his life depended on it.

"Well, it's Friday night – the finals are over with so we'll probably see her sometime soon," Eric said, while trying not to stare at Fez's shirt – it looked like that squiggly pattern on the shirt was starting to move and migrate in his direction.

At that point the door of the basement flew open, letting in a gust of fresh air to chase the smoke away and also granting entrance to a human breath of fresh air – at least, so she would describe herself. Eric's reputation as a prophet was made – Jackie Burkhart had entered the building.

"Well, hello stranger" volunteered Fez in his smarmiest voice.

"Hey, Fez. How goes life in the foreign lane?" Jackie replied.

"Why don't you put your blinker on and come and find out" he bantered with a sexy wink.

Jackie laughed and shocked Fez so much when she suddenly reached over and gave him a hug that he missed the opportunity to feel her up. But this was her last night with her friends and suddenly it came home to her how much they all meant to her – even Eric.

"Okay, Jackie, we are all here now," Donna said, closing the door behind her. "So come on – what's the big announcement?"

Jackie's eyes skittered over Steven and then promptly avoided him – she could not say this if it meant looking at him.

"Great news" she enthused with all the acting talent she possessed, "my grandmother has invited me to visit her in New York!"

"Well, shock headlines there," Eric said, casting a quick look at his best friend, but of course he was stone faced, as opposed to his stoned face which was much more cheerful. "So, we are going to be deprived of your constant stream of beauty tips for what, a weekend? A week?" The further investigation was more for Hyde's benefit, as Eric knew Hyde would never betray any interest himself.

"Actually", Jackie replied "it's kind of an open-ended visit. I don't know exactly when I'm coming back."

Hyde had the strangest feeling that the ground was moving under his feet, and it had nothing to do with the weed. This was not the way it was supposed to go. She was not allowed to leave him. He was suddenly hit with déjà vu, watching his father leave him when he was nine, yelling at his mother down a telephone line when he was sixteen for abandoning him. This whole scenario felt eerily familiar, only much worse because he was old enough to know that it was nothing he had done that had caused his parents to walk out. But that was not the case here. Suddenly he felt everyone looking at him and realized he had been silent for too long.

"Jackie, we need to talk" he said abruptly. Donna gave a mental sigh. At last he was waking up – one good argument closing with one of their freaky sexual exchanges and her annoying best friend would not be going anywhere.

"I think we have already said all there is to say, Steven" Jackie responded. This was why she had avoided her friends for the past week; the longer Steven knew of her decision, the greater the risk that he would talk her out of it. Talk her into settling for their stuck in the middle relationship and just coast along until one day she woke up and realized she had reached her "expiry date". When that day came, either Steven would leave her for someone younger and prettier or she would get resentful and bitter with him for wasting her youth. She had grown up in a house of angry tension and she refused to continue the cycle.

But Hyde was not taking no for an answer and with his usual flair for cutting through the crap, as he called it, slung her over his shoulder fireman fashion, and stalked into his bedroom, closing the door behind him with a volume which warned others not to follow.


	4. Goodbye

Jackie slid down Hyde's body with a deliberateness that was all his doing. When her feet touched the floor she pushed him away violently.

"What!" she yelled, welcoming the anger, drawing strength from it.

"Alright, I'm getting tired of the pouting and sulking fest now, babe," Hyde began. "I think moving to New York is going a bit too far, and I'm not talking geography here."

"Pouting and sulking?" Jackie repeated with raised eyebrows and crossed arms which telegraphed to Hyde a major case of foot-in-mouth. "How old do you think I am? Don't you ever take me seriously?"

"Of course I do, but you're not thinking rationally now. Isn't there some rule where you don't make life changing decisions when you're upset?"

"I'm not upset. My decision is perfectly rational," Jackie stated.

"Yeah, right" Hyde derided. "So the timing of this little trip has nothing to do with that stupid fight we had two weeks ago and which you're too proud to apologise for?"

Jackie struggled to hold back her temper at his trivializing of their break-up. He really was a chauvinist pig, but she would not justify his words by acting immaturely.

"No, actually my decision has everything to do with our break-up. But it is still a perfectly rational decision."

"And how do you figure that?" Hyde said sarcastically.

Jackie paused, struggling between pride and naked honesty. Oh Hell, she thought, Steven has been stripping the pride off me from the beginning – why should today be any different?

"Because I am in love with you," she said levelly, for the first time looking directly into his intensely blue eyes. "And as our relationship has no future, I have to move on and that is not going to happen here in Point Place. I have to get away."

Hyde felt like the breath had been knocked out of him, and could not help but admire how neatly she had sucker-punched him. Either he admitted their relationship had a future – and that open door would have him hogtied and hitched before the summer was over – or he agreed with her and let her go.

"Jackie, I…" but words would not come. He did not know what to say. All he knew was that the thought of not seeing her every day was like living in a world without a sun.

Jackie held her breath, hoping against hope for a declaration of love, a promise to try and move forward, anything, but Steven remained silent. Of course, he wasn't Michael. He would not say something he did not mean, not even to keep her. She respected that, even though it sometimes made her mad as fire, like when he would not lie about Brooke being hot. With a sad sigh, she moved into his arms which automatically closed around her, kissed his cheek and then walked out of his bedroom.

Her other four friends stopped talking when they saw Jackie emerge from Hyde's bedroom, alone. Not a good sign, thought Donna.

Kelso broke the silence. "I guess from your lack of post loving glow that things did not go too well in there."

Jackie smiled and moved into Michael's arms for a good-bye hug. "And people actually say you're not smart", she teased.

"Yeah, well, there's a lot more going on under these gorgeous locks than you would think," he replied with a smile.

"I know" she said seriously, with a look that reminded him of how she had seen more in him than any other person ever had. His arms tightened around her and then reluctantly surrendered her to the farewells of Donna, Eric and Fez.

"Can I have another hug, Jackie? I was not ready for the last one," pleaded Fez.


	5. The Good Life

Jackie snuggled into her Egyptian Cotton sheets and surveyed her Grandmother's elegant guest bedroom which had become her own sanctuary. Ah, how she had missed the thoughtless ease and luxury that came with wealth. It had been so easy to fall back into the spoiled princess patterns from the good old days before her father's fall from grace. Now such evils as budgeting, laundry and selling cheese were all a bad dream. A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… oops, she was slipping into an Eric-ism. Ruthlessly she stepped on this train of thought which could lead her back to memories of her old life.

Still, luxury did not equate with indolence, not in her grandmother's stately Long Island mansion. It was time to get up and join the aged relative for breakfast. Changing into a Donna Karan leisure suit, Jackie made her way to the morning room to find her grandmother dining on Eggs Benedict while reading the business section of the New York Times.

"Jaclyn. Please try to remember breakfast is served at 8.00 am, not 8.05," Elise reprimanded without looking up from her newspaper.

Mumbling an apology, Jackie served herself a small portion of scrambled eggs from the silver chafing dish as a maid hovered nearby with condiments. Suddenly she flashed back to eating scrambled eggs in a different kitchen, one where a middle-aged lady with an unusual laugh would press food upon her, while the balding head of the family would grumble about running a feeding trough for an orphan asylum.

Shaking the unwanted nostalgia, Jackie bent her mind to the present. "So, Grandmother, what is on the agenda for today?"

"As usual, my secretary will supply you with a schedule of your appointments."

"Yes, I know the usual things – piano lesson, dancing lesson, hair appointment – I meant are we attending any social events today," Jackie explained.

"Why, yes, I believe Jason will be escorting you to the Darracott's soiree tonight," her grandmother replied.

Jackie pulled a face which fortunately Elise failed to see. Jason Featherstone had been a constant caller at the Mansfield-Jones residence since Jackie's coming out partytwo months ago. He was handsome, urbane and, as the sole heir to the Featherstone Beauty Lotions fortune, indecently wealthy – _so_ not my type, Jackie thought. He was all too aware of how these three factors made him one of the most desirable bachelors on the New York social scene, and his arrogance tended to set Jackie's teeth on edge.

"Actually, Grandmother, I was thinking it would be nice to stay in tonight," Jackie attempted.

The newspaper descended, revealing a wooden countenance. "Stay in?" Elise repeated, as though it was some new hippy jargon no civilized person would use.

"Well, I have been out of the house for the last five nights running," justified Jackie. "Come on, it will be fun. We can relax on the couch, order in some pizza and watch Charlie's Angels together," Jackie finished with a winning smile.

Elise paused, trying to choose which of these ridiculous suggestions she should attack first. In the end, she decided not to dignify them with an argument. "You will be going to the Darracotts, Jaclyn. Jason will collect you at 7.30 pm – please do not be tardy."

Jackie felt the coldness of Elise's rebuff and fought not to let it affect her. The warm grandmotherly soul who had sympathised with her long distance two months ago had morphed back into the icy disciplinarian Jackie remembered from family reunions and anniversaries. Craving love and approval, she diligently followed her grandmother's rules and schedules and was occasionally rewarded with a half-hearted compliment such as "Yes, I knew that dress would suit your figure – that one you wanted needed some height to carry it off". Once she had even scored a "very good" when her grandmother supervised her ballroom dancing lesson. But it was a far cry from the close family relationship she had hoped she might have when she stepped off the plane at La Guardia and was greeted by her grandmother's chauffeur.

Jackie tried again to reach the shrivelled up organ that once was her grandmother's heart.

"As you wish, Grandmother." A pause. "So… what will you be doing today? Bingo at the Senior Citizens Centre? Lawn bowls? Arguing with waiters, perhaps?" Jackie inquired, searching through her knowledge of senior activities. She suddenly realised she had always been so preoccupied with how she spent her time she had never wondered how her grandmother spent her day.

Elise raised scornful eyebrows at Jackie's guesses, although her rusty sense of humour activated a slight tic on one side of her mouth as she suppressed a smile.

"Hardly" she drawled. "I will be in the same place I am from 9 to 6.00 pm 6 days a week – the Glow Cosmetics offices."

"Glow Cosmetics" exclaimed Jackie. "You work for Glow Cosmetics?"

"Work for? Of course not, silly girl. I _own_ Glow Cosmetics. Mansfield-Joneses are not employees," scoffed Elise. "Where did you think the family fortune came from?"

"I guess I never really thought about it," replied Jackie. "It was always just there."

"You will find in this life that there is always somebody paying the price for all the fine things you enjoy. Just make sure it is not you."

"But Glow Cosmetics! That is one of my favourite brands. I mean, some companies say their mascara is waterproof and their testimonials are so convincing that you buy it and then you go to the movies and see Love Story and when you walk out you look like a panda bear. But the Glow mascara saw me through both The Way We Were and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory!"

"Willy Wonka? I did not know that was a sad movie."

"There is a girl in it who eats some gum and she becomes… fat," Jackie explained with a shudder.

"Say no more."

"This is wonderful! I own Glow Cosmetics!"

"Er, yes, well actually, I own…"

"Oh, please, Grandmother, this is no time for possessiveness. We are family! Oh, I have to come into work with you today and take a tour of my company. Do you have a product testing section? Because I think I could really make a contribution in that area – I can spot a dud eyeshadow from 20 paces. Oh, I have to go and tone down my make-up so as to have a blank canvas to work on. I will meet you at the car in 15 minutes!" And with a return of her old energy, Jackie tore upstairs to re-do her make-up.

"Jaclyn, what about your schedule? I have not given you permission to change your plans," her Grandmother called after her, but she may as well have reprimanded the wind. And when Jackie's eager clean face greeted her at the Rolls Royce 30 minutes later, for some strange reason she found she could not dash her hopes. She was slowly learning a truth many had struggled with before her – Jackie Burkhart was irresistible.


	6. Return of the Jackie

Donna Pinciotti lay prone on her bad, revelling in her sadness. This was a melancholy that went bone deep and was of a particularly romantic variety. Her childhood sweetheart-slash-soulmate was even now trekking some African wilderness in his quest to get a free education.

"Damn fool kid" she muttered as she relived the tender memories of their love affair. Such as when Eric scaled an empty swimming pool wall to bring her a beer tap. Or when he got high and had what was supposed to be her name written on his ass. "Oh, my love..."

Just then her bedside phone broke through her gloom. "Hello?" she answered dully. "Jackie!"

"Hey, Donna! You sounded really sad just then. Oh, are you missing me?"

"Yeah, right, Jackie" Donna replied, projecting into her voice that she was rolling her eyes since Jackie could not see her. "No, Eric left for Africa last week." No more explanation was necessary. That was one of the few good things about have a best girl friend.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. He actually went through with it? I thought for sure he'd knuckle down to you in the end."

"Eric does not knuckle down to me, Jackie! How many times do I have to say he is a real man? And yes, he did slink off to that stupid country in spite of my telling him not to," Donna growled. "Anyhow, where have you been in my hour of need? I haven't heard from you for two weeks. In fact, I called your mansion this morning and some snooty butler said Miss Jackie was away for the weekend and then hung up on me."

"Yes, well, in Hitchen's defence, if your surname does not sound like something you would read on the Mayflower's ship log, he has been trained not to waste time on politeness."

"So where are you?" Donna asked.

"Actually," Jackie replied, drawing a deep breath, "I'm at my old house in Point Place."

"What! Why didn't you call me and let me know you were coming? I haven't seen you in four months."

"Well, this is like a secret visit. It's my Dad's birthday tomorrow and I've just come down to visit him. I'm flying back out tomorrow night."

"But why does it have to be a secret from your friends?" Donna questioned.

"Um, well, its just… you see, things were kind of awkward with Steven when I left and…"

"I see," Donna interrupted, sparing Jackie from finishing her disjointed sentence. She could understand Jackie's shyness, as the frequent phone conversations they had shared during her absence were a mixture of Jackie making it quite clear she was over Hyde and a desperate thirst for news of what he was doing. Clearly Jackie still had strong feelings for the scruffy burn-out which warred with her conviction that walking away from their dead end relationship was the best thing for them both. Donna herself had never made up her mind if the weird and unnatural connection between the mismatched pair was a good or bad thing.

"Look, why don't you come over to my place tonight and sleep-over. We can hang out, catch up, just like the old days. The guys don't have to know about it."

Jackie accepted the offer gladly. Her mother, not one to remain on her own for long, had deserted the Burkhart house shortly after Jackie's defection and the house was currently a dusty barn without water, electricity or servants. Arrangements were made for Jackie to sneak in through the back door and join Donna for dinner that night.


	7. Hyde Finds Out

Steven Hyde was winning a staring match with the TV once again when Fez burst through the basement door, his brown face flushed with excitement. Hyde tossed up whether Fez's entrance required any neck movement and decided against it. No need to risk shaking up unfamiliar muscles for what was probably another boob sighting.

"Guys, you will never guess who is in town!" Fez exclaimed.

"OH, the Coca-Cola Yo-Yo team!" Kelso guessed. "Finally, they grace us with their presence!"

"No, my friend. The news is not that big. It is the girl who was at one time the passion of all our hearts and the subject of our darkest dreams – Jackie!"

This got Hyde's attention. "Jackie's back? Did you see her? Where is she?" Too late, he realised he had actually betrayed something close to an emotion and tried to recover "Just so I know where not to be."

Fez and Kelso exchanged a look of pity for their friend's transparent ruse. Hyde was capable of so much better than that. The last few months of morose solitude was eroding his natural burning abilities.

"Well, I was hiding in Donna's closet," Fez began.

"Dude, what were you doing in her closet?"

"Hello, it's Saturday? Anyhow, I was just rubbing my face against her green plaid shirt when the phone rang and it was Jackie. I heard them making plans and Jackie is going over to Donna's for dinner tonight."

"Cool! Dinner at Donna's! This works out perfectly – I can catch up with my first love and scrounge a meal at the same time," Kelso said.

"Well, I'm not going," Hyde grumped. She could have at least called him and told him she was back instead of letting him hear it second-hand.

"No, you are not," Fez replied. "And neither are we."

"WHAT?" Kelso and Hyde said together.

"Her visit is a secret," Fez said mysteriously. "We are not supposed to know. I heard her and Donna make plans so she can come through the back door for their sleepover."

"A secret sleepover?" Kelso said with a leer. Girls sleepovers were hot enough but when it was a secret, who knew what crazy things went on – anyone with an oversexed imagination, that's who.

"This bites," Hyde said bitterly, starting to pace the room. "She swans off to her fancy Long Island mansion, never calls or writes and when she does come back, doesn't even want to see her oldest friends. Oh yes, Jackie Burkhart has certainly reverted to type!"

"She has phoned me," Fez volunteered.

"Yeah, and she wrote me some postcards," Kelso added. "There was this really cool one of a dog wearing a hat – she said it made her think of me."

"Didn't Eric say she had sent him a Yankees T-shirt?" Fez asked.

"Great," Hyde said, his anger building. "So I'm singled out for the cold shoulder. After all I've done to that girl."

"Don't you mean 'for that girl'?"

"That's what I said." Hyde sighed. "I guess you guys are joining me on the iceberg now, seeing as how she doesn't want to have dinner with you tonight."

"I don't want to be on the iceberg," Fez whined. "I have a weak chest."

"Then we have to show her that she is not going to get away with this," Hyde said, rallying the troops. "Kelso, can you borrow some surveillance equipment from the police station?"

"No, we're not allowed to borrow that stuff for personal use. Oh, wait," Kelso said, leaping up in inspiration "I could steal it and then put it back when they're not looking!"

"Yeah, that's what I said," Hyde replied. Really, it was like talking to a 3 year old.


	8. Mission Improbable

"So, any problems installing the camera and bugs?" Hyde asked Fez.

"Please, this is Fez you are speaking to. I know every concealing shadow and closet in that house. Once I even shared the bathroom with Bob and he never knew."

"Cool. Time to turn the channel and catch our favourite program – When Hot Young Chicks Sleepover," Hyde said with a grin.

The monitor was switched on to show an elevated view of Donna's bedroom. Hyde motioned the camera towards the bed.

"Bingo!" The camera showed Jackie and Donna seated on her bed.

"Damn," cursed Kelso. "We were too late to watch them change into their pyjamas!" Hyde frogged Kelso hard on the arm. Just because Jackie was no longer his girlfriend did not mean Kelso was allowed to perv at her naked body.

"Shut up! This is a family show," Hyde corrected. He then proceeded to drink in the sight of the girl he had not been able to banish from his thoughts for the past four stinking months. Had she always looked that beautiful? Or did crushing people's hearts lend an extra shine to the hair? "Turn up the sound!"

"Oh, Donna, it is so great to be sleeping with you again. I get so lonely back East sometimes," Jackie said.

"Oooooooh", moaned Fez and Kelso. Hyde sighed. It was going to be a long night of frogging.

"Well, I can't believe I'm saying this but I actually missed you, Jackie," Donna replied. "Especially now Eric has left, there is no-one to have even a semi-intelligent conversation with anymore. I mean, Kelso and Fez are idiots – "

"Hey!" cried the injured parties.

"And Hyde doesn't say much of anything these days. He used to be good for a heated discussion, especially if you can blame something on the government, but nowadays his vocabulary has shrunk to 'whatever' and 'who took the last beer'."

Hyde frowned at this negative assessment – Hey, he'd always been zen. If he was more zen than usual, that just showed he was doing it right. Then he noticed Jackie's eyes drop and her fingers start to pick at the silken fringe of her dressing gown.

"So, Steven is not very… sociable these days," she offered.

"You could say that."

"He's not sociable then with other girls?"

"Hey, Jackie, I promised I would tell you when that happened, as far as I knew," Donna said reassuringly. "So far no action there."

Hyde's fist balled as Fez and Kelso shrieked with laughter. Perhaps including the two morons in his plan was not the best idea. And what the hell was Donna doing keeping tabs on his love-life. And what business was it of Jackie's if he was banging the women's volleyball team or not. It's not like she cared anymore. Or did she?

"So how is your own romance coming along? Will you and Jason be ordering matching monogrammed bathrobes anytime soon?" Hyde felt his heart stop. Who was Jason?

It was like Jackie read his mind. "Jason? What do you know about Jason?"

"Well, Fez has been swiping the New York society magazines from his beauty salon so we could keep track of you," Donna explained. "You seem to be a pretty popular little debutante, Jackie."

"What can I say? The camera loves me," Jackie replied.

"And we could not help but notice that there was usually the same gorgeous millionaire with his arm over your shoulder in those photos," Donna finished.

Just before Hyde was about to give into his frustration and put his fist through the wall, Jackie said "Oh please, Donna! Jason Featherstone is a complete dork! He doesn't even know the names of the Petticoat Junction girls. And even though his family owns this huge beauty lotions company, he wouldn't know foundation from face powder!"

"Really? So why is he your favourite fashion accessory at every Manhattan club opening and party?"

"My grandmother. She's been pushing us together since I got there. I don't know what she thinks will happen. I mean, I'm not going to marry someone just because he meets all her specifications."

"Marriage? You've only known him a few months. She wants you to marry him?"

"Those are the hints she's been dropping lately. Well, not really hints. More like 'When you marry Jason, you must be sure to fire 20 per cent of the household staff so as to make a good impression.' I don't even argue about it anymore. Smiling and nodding goes a long way in my grandmother's house."

"Still the ice queen, hey?"

"Yes, but I think she is starting to thaw. A couple of months ago I went to our family's Glow Cosmetics Headquarters. Oh, Donna," Jackie breathed with shining eyes "it was so wonderful. It was like if Fez was let loose in the Hersheys chocolate factory!"

"She has read my dream book," murmured Fez.

"Since then I have been spending most of my mornings there, learning all the cosmetic secrets, like how they make all those glorious shades of blush. I mean, just when you thought you had seen every shade of fuschia, they come up with a new one. Magnificent bastards."

"And that is melting the ice?"

"Yes. I think Grandmother sees herself in me, like when she was young. Of course, I'm used to people fantasizing they are me, but this is different. When we talk about make up, the walls come down and we are no longer grandmother and granddaughter, we are like…"

"Friends?"

"Business colleagues. Seriously, Grandmother could not find a friend in Jesus. But she can't help respecting someone who knows their Clairol from their Revlon."

"Well, that's great, Jackie. I know you were having a hard time at first. It sounds like you and your grandmother are really finding some common ground."

"Oh, we are. You know, I was planning on coming home soon," Jackie said. Hyde, whose attention had strayed to the way Jackie's breasts peaked against her satin pyjama top during all the cosmetic talk, now snapped back to attention.

"Really? That's great. About time to return to real life. It's not too late to get into college, you know."

"Donna, I am a beautiful woman – I don't need college," Jackie repeated the old lesson Donna had never learnt. "Anyhow, Jason was starting to look down my blouse a bit too often so I told my grandmother it was probably time I went home and started my modelling career and how I had made some contacts with modelling agencies in Milwaukee. And then – you won't believe this!"

"What?"

"She bought me!"


	9. The Price is Right

"She did what?"

"She said that if I stayed with her for a total of 12 months she would settle the sum of five million dollars on me to do whatever I wanted with!"

"Five million," gasped Donna. "Oh my sainted grandmother!"

"No, _my _sainted grandmother," Jackie said triumphantly. "This is perfect. All I have to do is follow her rules for another 8 months and I never have to worry about money ever again! I tell you, Donna, those months as a cheese maiden were a living nightmare. Sometimes I still wake up in a panic with the smell of Gouda in my nostrils."

"This is incredible!" Donna considered the development. "Hang on, there has to be a catch. From all you've told me about your grandmother, there is no way you are getting more out of this deal than she is."

"I think it's a win-win situation for us both – I get financial security and she gets 12 months of me."

"And you're worth 5 mill?" Donna said sceptically.

"Well, she offered 3 but I talked her up to 5. And I'm a bargain at twice the price. You know, I really think she enjoys my company, especially since I started learning the ropes at Glow. Donna, I believe I am being _groomed_!"

"You'd actually let someone groom you? You won't even touch my hairbrush."

"Not that kind of grooming, you lumberjack. I mean groomed to take over the company!"

"Oh. Running a company? Weren't you just rejoicing how you would never have to work again?"

"Yes, but running Glow would not really be working because it fits me so well. It is like Steven and his record store – once he started working there he actually stopped complaining about how employment is the weapon of a capitalist dictatorship. He even worked back late some nights! He denied it, said he was casing a convenience store, but I knew what he was up to."

"And once again the conversation circles back to Hyde. Like we didn't beat that dead horse enough over dinner. Tell me, Jackie, how are you going to survive another 8 months in New York when you are so clearly not over Hyde?"

"It is because I am not over him that I it would be a good thing. Obviously, 4 months is not long enough to forget the man who stole my heart and then pawned it at the 'Don't give a Damn Store'. But if I really throw myself into the shopping, the parties, the cosmetics company and all the guys who are chasing me in Manhattan, I am positive I can be cured."

"I don't know," Donna said doubtfully. "I have a strong feeling you're going to regret this. You'd be better off coming home and trying to work things out with Hyde."

"You know, I was thinking when I came into my 5 million, I'd buy you and Eric a house as a wedding present."

"What!" cried a delighted Donna.

"And I'll buy Michael and Fez the coolest convertibles, the slut-magnet kind."

"What!" cried Kelso and Fez a household away. They did not notice Hyde leaving the room.

"You know, it sounds like New York has a great deal to offer you," Donna said. "I mean, what with the cosmetic empire and the Fifth Avenue shops – can I get something with 4 bedrooms?"

"You really want to live in a house that small?" Jackie questioned.


	10. The Chase

It was at the point when Hyde hurdled the Pinciotti picket fence that he realized he had lost his zen. Suddenly years of emotional subterfuge were swept away. Oh my God, he panicked. I'm _feeling! _And what was much worse, he was expressing his feelings!

It was Jackie's comment that he didn't give a damn about her that had triggered the melt down. How dare she play the victim. She was the one who had broken up with him, she was the one who had turned his life into a monotonous wasteland when she traipsed off to New York. And then there was her main crime – she had made him fall in love with her.

Slamming Donna's bedroom door open in the best soap opera fashion, Hyde's angry gaze centred on Jackie, white faced and trembling. God, she was so much more beautiful in colour.

"Hyde, what the hell?" Donna yelled.

"Shut up, Donna" Hyde barked. "Jackie and I have some unfinished business to take care of."

"No, Steven. I have nothing to say to you," Jackie said, cursing the tremor in her voice.

Hyde paused, considering the logistics of the situation. Should he throw Donna out of her bedroom and lock the door? Who was he kidding, Donna would cream him. And there was the surveillance gear.

He reached over and grabbed Jackie by the hand. "Come on!"

"No," fought back the stubborn princess. She tried to kick him in the shin but found it was not as effective when she was barefoot.

"Jackie, you can either come with me this way or I'll put you over my shoulder – and your hair isn't tied back this time so it will probably get pretty mussed."

Jackie scowled. "FINE," she surrendered angrily.

Not taking any chances, Hyde kept a firm grasp of her wrist as he pulled her down the stairs towards the Forman's house.

"Damn!" Donna swore. "There goes my house!"

However, when Jackie and Hyde reached the basement back door, they found Fez and Kelso guarding the entrance with arms crossed and faces stern.

"Guys, let us through," Hyde said.

"You're not going anywhere, Hyde," Kelso said in his best swaggering cop voice.

"We want our slutty cars, you son of a bitch," Fez bit out. The teenagers froze for a moment, and then Hyde quickly did an about-face to the El Camino, never letting go of Jackie. He only just managed to get them both in the car when his pursuers caught up with them, leaving Fez and Kelso in the El Camino's exhaust fumes.

"Oh man," Kelso griped. "We're never getting those cars now."

"Do not talk of it," Fez said with tears in his voice. "Oh, the whores we could have driven!"

"I'm sorry, Fez. But hey, if it makes you feel any better, I don't have to return the camera in Donna's room until Monday."

Fez thought about this, drew a deep breath and sprinted back to the monitor with Kelso following closely.


	11. At the Reservoir

Jackie hugged her anger at Steven's high-handed ways close to her. She reminded herself how he had manhandled her and abducted her barefoot and in her pyjamas. Thank God she hadn't been wearing the T-shirt he gave her, which was her usual sleeping apparel. She would not allow the fact that his touch had sent shivers through her body or the way he smelled so good, all beer and smoke and Steven, sway her from her righteous indignation.

"Where are you taking me," she said curtly. He did not reply, feeding her nervousness. What was he so angry about? Actually, that was a good question. "Why are you angry with me?"

The car pulled up at the reservoir, one of their prime making out spots in days past. A full moon lit up the water into a silver splendor. Steven turned to face her, noting how she held her body away from him as if afraid of his touch.

"How the hell could you say I stole your heart and never gave a damn about you?" he exploded.

"What? How could you possibly know I said that?"

"That's not the point," Hyde rebutted, hastily avoiding that issue. "Damn it, Jackie! You know damn well how I feel about you."

Jackie's heart skipped a beat at his use of the present tense. "Actually, I don't. I can count on one hand the number of times you've said you loved me. I don't even need all the fingers."

"What does it matter how many times I said it?" Hyde argued. "The fact that I said it at all is what counts. You know I'm not the kind of guy who tells someone they… who uses that word."

"Then what kind of guy are you?" Jackie replied. "I used to not mind that you couldn't say what I wanted so much to hear. I'd tell myself that what counted was how your actions told me how much you loved me."

"Exactly," Hyde agreed. "Like when I shaved off my beard, or went to those stupid dances with you."

"Yes. That first year we were together – we had some rocky moments but we'd come through them all stronger, our feelings for each other deeper. But then…"

"What?"

"It stopped. The going forward. I would talk about the future – our future – and you would get this panicked look in your eyes and change the subject. And suddenly you were digging in your heels about doing those things with me that I like, as if you didn't want me to get any ideas that you were anything more than a selfish macho creep!"

Hyde could feel the argument slipping away from him. "Hey!"

"Do you remember that time we went to check out the mobile home Donna had rented for her and Eric when they were supposed to be getting married? I said if you ever rented a trailer for us, I'd leave you and you said something like Good, now I have an exit strategy."

"That was a joke!"

"Your jokes have always had too much of a basis in truth for my liking," Jackie said.

"Hey, if we're going to rehash stupid things we've said in the past, how about all your crap about leaving me if I didn't make enough money or couldn't give you the lifestyle you wanted."

Jackie was caught out. "Oh. You know I never meant that."

"Yeah right."

"No, really, I was just – "

"Joking?"

"Look, we're getting off track here," Jackie said, retreating from that line of questioning. "The main clue, the dead giveaway that you no longer loved me was how you would not even consider a future with me."

"Oh God, are we back to that steaming pile of –" he caught Jackie's look "roses again! I'm 19, Jackie! and you're 18! We're too young to be getting married and taking on mortgages and churning out brats."

"Yes, I know." Jackie agreed calmly.

"And I don't care if you – what did you say?"

"I know. We are too young to get married. I haven't even settled on a career yet. And I am way too smoking hot to start tearing down this body with child-bearing. I mean, pregnancy stretches things – and those things are never the same again!"

Hyde processed this. "Hang on. If you didn't want to get married, then what the hell was our break-up about?"

Jackie exhaled in exasperation. "It was about wanting to spend our lives together, you dope. It was about moving ahead in the same direction, growing up together and being there for each other. And yes, one day getting married. When we were both ready for it."

"Oh," Hyde said. "Is that what you meant?"

Jackie was just about to tell Steven Hyde exactly what category of brain dead commitment coward loser he fit into when he pulled her towards him, capturing her mouth with his own. Jackie's brain shut down at this point as the sensations her body had hungered for over the last 129 days were restored to her over-sensitised system. Damn, he was a good kisser. He must have learnt some Jedi mind tricks from Eric because suddenly she had no direction over her arms which had crept around his neck, one hand sliding into his curly hair.

Hyde pulled away a moment to look into Jackie's eyes, knowing her dazed expression was a mirror of his own. He tried to remember what they had been talking about – he had a vague memory they were fighting – when Jackie pulled his head back towards her and latched onto his mouth as though he was a drug she had been too long without.


	12. Morning Glory

In a king sized bed in a motel room downtown from Point Place, two supremely contented people snuggled against each other in a semi-awake condition. As Jackie floated to the surface she became aware of Steven's arm cradling her against his body, his hand resting on her backside. She began to nibble at his shoulder, a manoeuvre that had had agreeable consequences at various intervals during the night.

Hyde, awakened from a pleasant dream to an even pleasanter reality, rolled on top of his lover and, being a gentleman at heart, proceeded to wish her a good morning between slow, heat generating kisses.

"Mmmm, Steven. I can't believe you're really here." Jackie said dreamily.

"I know what you mean – I had so many dreams of waking up with you in my arms again – and then the sun is in my eyes and I find myself humping a pillow."

Jackie giggled. "Careful – I might start thinking you missed me."

"Well, if last night's efforts failed to teach you that lesson maybe you need a refresher course." Jackie indulged herself in 5 minutes of slow kisses and then regretfully drew away.

"I'm afraid I have to start getting ready, Steven. I'm seeing my father today and visiting hours start in an hour."

"An hour? You don't need the whole hour. C'mon baby, we still have a whole half hour to explore your 'dirty urges'."

Jackie laughed and resisted his wandering hands. "Cut it out, Steven. You know how long it takes me to do my hair and make up. One hour will be cutting it close enough as it is."

Hyde was not beaten yet. "Well, you'll definitely need a shower before you go. Can't have daddy smelling the Hyde loving all over his little girl. Although he will know you've been up to no good as soon as he sees your blissed-out expression." Hyde and Jackie looked at each other for 2 seconds and then made a simultaneous sprint for the shower.

One hour later Hyde and Jackie set off for the prison, making a quick stop at Jackie's old house so she could grab some clothes. In spite of damp hair (Hyde would keep pushing her under the shower head) and no time for more make-up than a dash of lip stick, Hyde could not remember his girl friend looking more beautiful.

"I can't believe you bugged Donna's bedroom," Jackie said. She wanted to sound cross with him – after all it was a serious offence – but she just could not manage it.

"Teach you to try and avoid me when you finally come home," Steven said smugly.

Jackie felt her happiness fade a little at the phrase "come home". "Coming home" was one of her favourite expressions, insinuating a safe place full of welcoming loved ones, something she had never really had in her lonely childhood. She had desperately grabbed at this concept in both of her relationships with Michael and Steven, trying to anchor her boyfriends with life time vows which would secure for her the warm home life she had missed out on. But she knew she had not really come home. And Steven's use of such permanent sounding words suddenly brought her down to earth.

"Steven… you know I have to leave tonight?" As he had been listening in on her last night, he must know all her reasons for returning to New York.

Hyde remembered the time when he was ten and he had walked onto the local pond, confident the ice was frozen solid, only to go crashing through at an unexpected weak point. He felt the same icy shock at Jackie's words.

"You're what? Jackie, you're not still going back!" Hyde asserted, end of discussion.

Jackie pushed the discussion back open. "Steven! I know you heard everything I said last night. I have to go back."

"Why? Because your grandma bought you? You've never had a problem with returning gifts before."

Jackie rolled her eyes. She should have known Steven was going to be difficult about this. "Look, I've already agreed to her deal. It's only for 8 months. Then I'll come back as a multi-millionaire and we can do and buy whatever we want! Think of it, Steven – never worrying about money again!"

"Jacks, I can't say I ever really did worry that much about money. That was more your department."

"Well, that's because you grew up poor and I grew up rich," Jackie snapped back. "It's easy not to miss what you don't have but I was raised a certain way to expect certain things. In a nutshell, life is way better when you're rich." Hyde remained silent at this comment. Jackie looked side-long at his stony face and bit her lip nervously. "You once said you weren't like Eric and would have no problem mooching off me when we were on our own."

"What, you're gonna believe every smartass remark I ever made? Besides, there's a big difference between occasionally bumming a few bucks off you and spending the rest of my life as your kept man!" Hyde ran a hand through his hair and let out a frustrated sigh. "Besides, who are we kidding. You go back to New York, you won't be coming back here."

"Steven! Of course I'm coming back! How can you doubt that after last night?"

"I believe you mean it right now. But you go back to New York and start living in your fancy mansion and chumming around with your fancy friends at fancy parties and suddenly Point Place is not going to be the drawcard you think it is now."

"Rubbish!"

"It's true. Plus it sounds like your black widow spider of a grandmother is sewing you up into her way of life so neatly you don't even know what's happening. You think she offered you 5 mill for the pleasure of your company? I mean, I wouldn't go higher than $500 and I love you!"

"Wait – you love me?"

"Don't change the subject. Plus there's your rich playboy fiance waiting to jump you at the next opportunity. And your grandmother's company – Jackie, what are you doing with my handbrake?"

"Stop the car this second or I'll pull it up and strip your thingamajig."

Cursing fluently, Hyde pulled over and screeched to a stop, whereupon Jackie launched herself into his lap and proceeded to kiss whatever portion of his face she could reach.

"You said you loved me," she gasped between kisses.

"Of course I love you," Hyde growled, giving into the warm bundle of beautiful girl in his lap.

"Wow, that's two times you said it – now I can start counting on my other hand," chortled Jackie triumphantly. After a few more minutes of making out, Jackie exclaimed "I've got it! The perfect solution!"

"What solution?" Hyde said suspiciously.

"You can come with me!"

"To New York?" Hyde said incredulously.

"Of course! You always used to say you wanted to go there some day. You almost did when that punk girl came through town. You can come and live in New York with me and then come February we will return to Point Place ready to start our lives together." Hyde wondered if he could be blinded by the stars in Jackie's eyes.

"Jackie, that's crazy. I've got a job here. I can't just walk out on it. And where would I live in New York? I can't see your grandmother inviting me to stay with you. And what would I do there? I won't be able to go to the same places you do. It could never work."

"Steven, you're just shooting my idea down without even considering it. So we'll have to work some stuff out – isn't the important thing that we'll be together?"

"Forever the cock-eyed romantic, aren't you?" Hyde gently pushed Jackie back into the passenger seat. "Come on, we'd better get you to your Dad before visiting hours finish."

Jackie sat back in her seat, her hopeful mood dashed by Steven's dismissal, and concentrated on breathing through the weight of sadness on her chest.


	13. Fatherly Advice 1

Okay, here's the next instalment which is pretty angsty but its time for J & H to start dealing with their issues. J first.

Jackie followed the guard into the visiting area of the minimum security prison where her father was waiting. She resolutely pushed aside her disappointment at Steven's reaction, and concentrated on being the cheerful daughter her father expected to see – as always.

"Kitten," Robert Burkhart greeted her fondly.

"Daddy!" The father and daughter embraced and Jackie had a desire to never leave the safe circle of her father's arms. Yet she knew that the feeling of safety was as much an illusion as her old childish belief that her father was an all powerful being able to fix all problems with a wave of his check book. Now he was in prison for bribery and embezzlement of Council funds. She had never known quite how to reconcile her Superman-Santa-Claus image of her father with the defrauding criminal before her and the four months since she had last seen him had not provided any enlightenment to this dilemma.

So they spoke of things rather than issues – his plans to represent himself at his next appeal, the appalling prison food, her activities in New York. They were much better at talking about the things on the surface than the things beneath.

"Oh, Daddy, I forgot to say Happy Birthday," Jackie cried. "I bought you a box of those really expensive cigars you like when I was in New York but things happened last night and I had to leave them at Donna's house. I didn't want to come here empty-handed though so I stopped by our old house and got you this." Jackie handed over the present she had hastily pulled from her bedroom bookshelf with some trepidation. She could not help thinking he would find it a rather lame gift.

"Why, Jackie," Robert Burkhart said in wonder as he turned the pages and realised what he was looking at. "You're giving me your photo album?"

"I know it must seem a pretty cheap sort of gift," Jackie said in embarrassment, realising how low in monetary value the photo album was. "I will get the cigars to you when –" Her father cut her off.

"How can you call this a cheap gift? I can see the work you have put into this – all the glitter and little doodles that are just so you. And these photos," he flipped through the pages and saw his daughter grow from an adorable infant to a wide eyed child into a beautiful young woman "don't you know how these photos make me feel – so proud that at least there is one thing in my life that has turned out good and worthwhile."

Jackie felt tears spring to her eyes at this description of herself. She had no problem thinking of herself as beautiful and clever but she had never aspired to such adjectives as "good" and "worthwhile" – words which described an inner beauty. Then she saw her father frown and asked him what was wrong.

"I remember most of these early photos – your first six years – but I don't recognise a lot of the photos after that. I don't even recall what occasions they were taken for."

Jackie took a seat next to her father and guided him through the photos. "Well, this one was my first grade school play – see, I was Snow White – and here I am at 8 when I won the trophy for prettiest ballerina. Now this one my riding instructor took the first time I made a jump – that was my pony, Firefly, you remember her?" Robert shook his head in sad bewilderment as he realised all these facts were new to him.

"I wasn't there, was I?" he asked quietly. "I don't remember ever going to see one of your school plays, although you would tell me about them at dinner time. And the dance recitals – I think I made it to a couple of those but usually had to leave early. I'd forgotten about the pony – my secretary handled its purchase, I just wanted to make up to you for not being at the hospital when you had your tonsils out." Robert Burkhart looked his daughter in the eye and said gravely "Jackie, no gift I have ever given you is worth a tenth as much as this 'cheap' photo album." He pulled Jackie into a hug that spoke of a lifetime of regret. "I'm so sorry, baby."

In this moment Jackie felt the pain that she had lived with for so long begin to heal. She realised her father was neither a hero nor a villain but just a man, as flawed and imperfect as she knew herself to be, although she tried so hard to hide her imperfections from both him and herself. "It's alright," she choked, and felt the release of forgiveness. But she could not let things rest with that – she had to know. "But Daddy – why? If you loved me – "

"Always, Jackie!"

"- then how come you let me down so much? Why didn't you want to spend any time with me?" Jackie asked the questions that had tortured her all her life.

"Jackie, I did want to! Out in the world it seemed my life was like an express train and if I didn't get to all the scheduled stops on time things would fall apart and I would be a failure. I never had time to separate what was urgent from what was important but in here all I have is time to think and the memories that give me the most joy are all about you." Robert traced a finger over one of the few photos in the album where he featured in a picture – the 9 year old Jackie was seated in his lap, her face glowing with joy at being with her father. "I thought the most important thing in life was to make money. You see, your mother was much wealthier than I when we married and her mother made no secret of the fact that she didn't think I was good enough for Pam – a young law student from Wisconsin was no match for a New York Mansfield-Jones. So I had to prove I could buy my wife and daughter everything they deserved and that would show everyone how much I loved them. Well, you know your mother – how much you spend on her equals how much you love her in her mind. But you're not like that."

"I'm not?" queried Jackie. She thought guiltily how many of her friends would disagree with this character assessment.

"No. If you were you would not have felt so abandoned by your mother and I. You are so full of love, Jackie, and so hungry for it that it always made me scared how vulnerable it made you to others like that Kelso boy you dated." Robert Burkhart grimaced at a photo of Michael Kelso with his arms around a lovestruck Jackie and wished he had pressed a little harder against Kelso's windpipe that time he had surprised him in Jackie's bedroom – wearing a dress and make-up!

"Yes, Michael was not one of my better choices," Jackie admitted.

"I know I'm not really someone to look up to anymore, but there is some advice I want to give you, princess. Work out what is really important in your life, what will truly make you happy, and then make it a priority. I am where I am now because I made my priorities money, career, prestige and then family. If I had put my family first, I wouldn't have needed to work so hard to earn so much money to compensate for not being around, and your opinion of me would have mattered more than what the world thought of me."

Jackie turned to the last page of the photo album which showed four of her favourite photos of herself and Steven. As she absorbed her father's words, a warm certainty filled her body and joyful laughter bubbled from her.

"Oh, Daddy! Thank you so much – that is the most precious gift you have ever given me!"


	14. Fatherly Advice 2

Red Forman considered himself an easy-going man. So long as the people around him understood the sanctity of a hard-working man's Sunday afternoon relaxation time, you would have walked a long way to find anyone more full of the milk of human kindness. Of course, as this kindly personality descended on him only at times when there were no 'dumbasses' around him (ie. everybody on the planet with the exception of his wife), it was rare for others to witness this phenomenon. It was, however, common as mud to sight the irritable-bear-poked-with-stick that he became when his solitude was intruded upon, such as when Hyde slouched down onto his living room couch. Red noted the boy's depression was so thick that even his angriest glare could not penetrate. He weighed up the inconvenience of removing himself from his comfortable pea soup chair and hiding out in his den against ignoring Hyde, and had just decided on the latter course when Hyde broke the most sacred Foreman Commandment – he actually reached for the frosty can of beer resting on Red's coffee table.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Red roared in disbelief.

Hyde jumped and looked at the beer in his hand and the angry father figure across from him, as if wondering what alternate reality he had been transported into.

"Sorry," he mumbled, replacing the beer.

"Oh crap! Are you going back into your sad bastard routine? She's been gone 4 months, boy. Suck it up and move on." Red shook his newspaper open and retreated behind it, to avoid any suggestion that his words were a conversational opening. But of course, Steven had to respond – Dumbass!

"She came back."

"The loud one is back? Hell, just when you think the number of hangers-on is going down, one of them comes back." Red sighed in resignation, realising if he was ever going to get any peace to himself, he had better talk to Steven – with as little sympathy and courtesy as possible, of course.

"Don't worry, she's going back tonight. You won't see Jackie around here again – ever."

"Did you talk to her? Tell her what a miserable sadsack you've been since she left?" Red asked.

"Yeah we talked. Right after we got finished with the fighting – and the kissing – and… other stuff, we talked. Then it turned out that all the things she made me believe last night were a crock because she's still going back to New York."

"Why?"

"She had reasons – half a dozen beauts. Whole lot of money, social position, career opportunity, her grandmother. Guess the scale on my side was pretty light stacked up against all those reasons," Steven said in his best couldn't-care-less way.

"Hmmm. Sounds like any person of logic and sense would choose New York over you. So why did Jackie?"

"Nice burn, Red. Got us both with that one."

"Seriously; that girl has always walked around with her head in some airy-fairy pink romance cloud. Always talking about "true love conquering all" and that kind of crap. Did those soulless New Yorkers knock the fairy dust out of her head?"

"Well actually," Hyde said in a sarcastically bright voice, "she's become both! Yes, the new and improved Jackie Burkhart, now sold with both the original bubble-headed romantic notions and hard-headed business sense."

"Meaning…" Red probed.

"She's going back to New York so she can earn the 5 million dollar carrot her Grandma is waving in front of her nose but she wants to take me with her! Thinks she can get me onto the plane as part of her hand luggage. Spouted some sugary crap about the most important thing is that we be together. God!"

"Whoa, her grandmother is offering her 5 million dollars to live with her? And you think she should have given that up for love of you? Son, I think you're the hopeless romantic in this case."

"Thanks, Red. Always rewarding to sit at your feet and partake of your wisdom." Hyde made a move to leave but Red Forman put out a restraining hand.

"Hold on, there." Red dug deep inside of himself and dredged up some humanity. "Sounds like your girlfriend did say one smart thing – that stuff about being together."

"Are you kidding me, man? That's a line right out of Mills and Boon," Hyde derided.

"Hey, romance novels aren't all crap, you know," Red said, thinking uncomfortably of his copy of "The Reluctant Wench" secreted inside his toolbox. "You know, I used to think as you did when I was a teenager. I met Kitty when I was 17 and the most important thing to me then was to not let her guess how much I really cared about her. Couldn't let her see what kind of a hold she had on me because I was the man and the man has to be cool. Oh yes, we said cool back then – you're generation does not have the patent on that word. But then I got drafted."

Hyde started casting furtive glances at the exit points of the living room, wondering if he could make a break for it before the war stories began.

"Korea was a real eye-opener, I can tell you that. Nothing like picking shrapnel out of your buddies with a teaspoon to make you take notice of what's important. Before I left for Korea, my plan was to get a high paying job, get myself the slickest corvette on the lot and then when I had myself all set up, I might think about settling down. And if Kitty got tired of waiting around for me, those were the breaks. But in the North Korean jungles that started to look like a really stupid plan. And I was kicking myself for not telling Kitty I loved her and wanted to marry her before I left America. But I sure let her know how I felt as soon as I got back."

"And now you have… all this," Hyde said, waving a hand at the 20 year old furniture and peeling wallpaper.

"What, you think I would have been happier with a better house or a better car? Sure, that would have been good," Red took a moment to grieve for the powder blue corvette he had sold last year "but not if it meant losing Kitty. Facing death, realising I might not get the chance to live a life with her, made me realise the most important thing in this life is to find someone to love who loves you back and then hang onto them as though a slant-eyed commie was trying to tear them away. All the other stuff – it's just stuff. You got obstacles, you find answers and make it work."

Hyde pushed himself up from the couch, his thoughts spinning from Red's advice. He did not know which was more disturbing – the things Red had said or the fact that he had just had discussed matters of the heart with the meanest ass-kicker in Point Place.

"OK, thanks Red. I would really like to leave now."

"Fine. I'll try to get along without you," Red replied, reverting to sarcastic mode.

As Steven left the house, Red murmured under his breath "Wait for it." Sure enough the kitchen door opened to reveal a teary-eyed Kitty.

"Oh Red" she sobbed, embracing him passionately.

"With luck," Red thought, "that pansy-assed spiel will be my ticket out of a week's worth of menopause drama."


	15. Back to Basement

_Time to get our favourite couple back together, I think. Please R & R - and thank you Emily Jane for all your comments._

"Look, Hyde, if you don't stop your twitching I'm gonna have to kick your ass," Kelso threatened. Hyde tore his gaze from the basement door to frown at the lanky doofus.

"Good idea, man. Putting your melon in a headlock would really help pass the time 'til…"

"Til what?" Donna asked. "Oh my God – you're waiting for Jackie, aren't you?" Hyde's silence was an admission of guilt.

"Wait, you told us she was going back to New York," Fez accused. "She made her choice, Hyde, and a damn fine choice it was." Fez and Kelso had forgiven Hyde for abducting their potential benefactress of motor vehicles when he had told them Jackie was honoring her Grandmother's deal. Still, putting those two love-charged teens in the same room was a foolhardy risk their friends did not wish to run.

"Look, we agreed to meet back here this afternoon. We still have some things to… work out."

"Sure, of course," Kelso said soothingly while making frantic signals to Fez. Suddenly they pounced on Hyde from different directions, grabbing one arm each and dragging him towards his bedroom.

"Sorry, Hyde, but this is for our own good," Fez explained. "Donna, grab something to barricade his door with!"

"Oh, give it up, you idiots," Donna said in exasperation as Hyde broke their hold. "Hyde and Jackie have a lot of things to work out. As their friends, we should be supportive."

"Oh yes, Hyde was very supportive last night," Fez said with suspicious compliance, "when he masterminded planting microphones and a camera in your bedroom. Kelso and I could never have done it without him."

"What!" screeched Donna. "That's how you knew Jackie was there! You bastard! I'm not giving up a house for you! Get him, boys!"

With Donna joining the attack, Hyde began to panic that he really would be locked away from Jackie. He was clinging onto his bedroom door jamb, resisting their efforts, when he heard a strident voice blast out "Get off my boyfriend!"

Looking up, Hyde saw Jackie, eyes blazing and fiercest frown aimed at his assailants. Reluctantly they released their hold. As soon as he was free he raced towards his rescuer, enveloping her in a hug that said I'm sorry, I love you, don't leave me.

"DAMN," Kelso yelled. "Well, isn't that the sweetest thing; giving up wealth and security for love – you two make me sick."

Hyde detached himself from Jackie's mouth long enough to say "Jackie doesn't have to give up anything," and then resumed frenching her mercilessly.

This sounded hopeful, Donna thought. "Someone throw some cold water on them – I want explanations!"

"Sure, throw water on my designer silk shirt – if you have a deathwish," Jackie warned. "Although – what did you mean just then, Steven?"

Hyde pulled Jackie down onto the couch, settling her in his lap. He felt it was essential not to break contact with her. Even though nothing had been settled between them yet, he felt more certainty inside of him than he had since the first day he realised he loved her and therefore had something to lose. Both Jackie and Red were right – the most important thing was not to let go. All the things pulling them apart were just details compared to that truth.

"Well, I was hoping to talk to you without an audience," Hyde said with a speaking look at his three friends.

"Yeah, I know how you feel. I was hoping to have the right to privacy in my own bedroom," Donna said pointedly. "Isn't life a bitch?"

"Oh, you found out about that?" Jackie said, her eyes laughing.

"You know too? How can you paw at him in that disgusting way when he's no better than a peeping tom pervert?"

"Well, I thought it very romantic. Steven missed me so much that when he found out I had come back but wouldn't see him he arranged things so he could gaze at my beauty and listen to the music of my voice. You really can't blame him, Donna," Jackie explained. Steven nodded solemnly at Donna as though in full agreement. "In fact, I'm surprised you're not more upset with Fez and Michael. Steven spied on you for half an hour but these guys have been at it all weekend."

Struck by this realisation, Donna rotated towards the two perpetrators who were inching their way towards the basement door. At the look on her face, they broke into a frenzied retreat, the flame-haired avenger in hot pursuit.

"Way to clear the room for us, baby," Steven said admiringly. He rewarded her with 10 minutes of kisses before pulling back to say "OK, we'd better talk now while I can still remember my name."

"Mmmm… afraid I'm already past that point, Brian," Jackie drawled sexily.

"Time to get serious, Jacks. I meant what I said – you don't have to give up anything on my account. I'm going to New York with you!"

Jackie was befuddled by this about-face. "But – what about your job?"

"I'll get another one."

"And where will you live?"

"They have apartments for rent in New York, don't they?"

"And fitting into my high flying lifestyle?"

"I guess I could steal a tux off a waiter and crash some parties with you. And I'll take you slumming at the best dives and rock clubs in the big city. All those things we can work out, honey. So long as we stick together."

Tears stood in Jackie's eyes as she heard Steven's promise to her – that he would never let her go. After a life time of being abandoned by people who were supposed to be there for her, Jackie felt enfolded in the warm protection of Steven's love.

"Steven, I love you so much," she said tenderly. "But there is one more obstacle to your following me to New York."

"What? Whatever it is, we'll get around it." Hell, what new drama was going to try and tear them apart.

"I'm not going," Jackie said.

He could not have heard her right. "Say again?"

"I called my grandmother half an hour ago and told her I'm staying here in Point Place – with you."


	16. Jackie's Fiance

Two days later 

"Jackie, stop being such a pig-headed little idiot and call your grandmother now!" Hyde demanded.

"Get bent!" was Jackie's considered response.

Donna and Fez walked through the basement door into another battle of wills between the newly reunited couple. "Oh Lord, are they still at it?" Fez moaned.

"Jackie, you should listen to Hyde," Donna said. "I am sure if you grovel convincingly your grandmother will let you go back. I can call Eric if you like and have him give you some grovelling pointers."

"Donna, you don't get it. I don't want to go back. I don't even like New York," Jackie said adamantly.

"Liar! I have a scrapbook full of magazine clippings that tells a different tale," Fez said, holding up an album full of society page clippings.

"Let's see that," Hyde said. "Ah, I see what you mean, Jackie. You look downright miserable in this photo where you're dancing the hustle with Warren Beatty. I guess we were misled by the huge grin on your face."

"Yes, well, that huge grin masked a broken heart," Jackie replied.

"Really? And how about this one?" He pointed to a photo of Jackie resplendent in a creamy Dior ball gown set off by the stunning Mansfield-Jones sapphires. "You've got 'I'm so happy that I am the prettiest girl in this room' written all over your face."

"Actually," Jackie said, "I was thinking how much my shoes were pinching me and how I wished my grandmother would let me stay home more than one night a week."

Hyde caught the wistful note in Jackie's voice. "I thought your idea of heaven was going to a party every night."

"Remember when Red punished Eric for smoking by making him a smoke a whole box of cigarettes? My experience in New York was kind of like that. When you're ordered to go out to events just about every freaking night, it's about as much fun as coughing your lungs up."

Hyde put his arm around Jackie's shoulders and gave her a squeeze. "Hey," he said gruffly.

Jackie sensed weakness and turned the full force of her huge sad eyes Steven-wards "Plus I was so lonely without you there, Steven or my good friends," she added, turning her folorn countenance towards Donna and Fez. Hyde might have recovered from the sorrowful eyes and returned to his forceful arguments as to why Jackie should not give up her life in New York for his sake, when she went in for the kill.

She pouted.

"Fine!" he surrendered. "Throw away a lifetime of financial security. But don't come crying to me when 20 years from now we're living in government housing and we can't afford to send our kids to college."

"Oh Steven," Jackie cried in ecstasy. "You see us together with a house and kids in 20 years!"

"You and your selective hearing," Steven said. "This isn't the end of… this…disc-" The remainder of his sentence was lost as Jackie peppered his face with kisses.

Before their debate reached its natural conclusion – Hyde's bedroom – Mrs Foreman came downstairs.

"Jackie, there's someone here to see you," she said with her nervous laugh.

Extricating herself from her boyfriend with a promise to be right back, Jackie followed Mrs Foreman up the stairs. Some instinct had warned her not to ask the identity of her caller in front of Steven, and she was glad she had paid attention to it once she opened the door upon one of most the incongruous sights in her memory – Jason Featherstone of the New York Featherstones seated stiffly upon the Foreman's mustard-coloured couch.

"Jason," gasped Jackie, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Well, that's a fine way to greet your fiance," Jason replied.

Kitty was shocked. "Jackie! Why didn't you tell me you were engaged? I saw the perfect engagement present at the mall yesterday."

"Mrs Foreman, I am not enga – ooh, what did you see?"

"Jackie," Jason interjected, reclaiming her attention. "Surely you realised my intentions towards you? Was it despair that I might not propose to you that drove you to this paltry backwater?"

"Backwater?" Kitty repeated, offended. "Would a backwater have a Pricemart and a Fatso Burger?"

"Er, yes, I think I can take it from here, thanks Mrs Foreman," Jackie said. Kitty exited to the kitchen, muttering under her breath about stuck up New Yorkers who wouldn't know culture if it kicked them in the keester.

"Jason, I don't know how you found me or why you're here, but you should know that –"

"I am here, my darling, because your grandmother called me yesterday, quite frantic, with some outrageous story that you had decided not to return to New York. I am under strict orders to bring you back with me." Jason moved towards Jackie, who retreated warily from him, keeping the couch between them.

"Jason, I'm sorry but you have made this trip for nothing. I am staying here where I belong."

"That's crazy talk! You belong with me! You are the toast of New York, Jackie and together we are the golden couple – we complement each other perfectly. You can't deny that." Jason managed to snag Jackie's wrist and pull her wriggling form towards him, "Just as you can't deny the chemistry between us." His breath was hot on her face as he mashed her against his body. Jackie was just about to crush her heel down on his foot when she heard from behind her:-

"Would you mind getting your meathooks off my girlfriend's ass?" In spite of the polite phrasing, there was no escaping the menace of those words. Jackie took advantage of Jason's discomposure to break away and stand beside Steven, keeping a restraining hand on his arm. Although part of her would like to see him nail Jason to a wall for manhandling her, she knew Jason for the kind who fought with lawyers rather than his fists and was therefore much more dangerous.

"Excuse me? Jackie and I are practically engaged – I can put my hands on whatever part of her anatomy I desire."

Jackie felt Hyde's muscle harden under her hand and quickly moved in front of him. "Steven, you once told me there is a time for zen and a time for ass-kicking – trust me when I tell you this is a time for zen," she said warningly. As he stilled, she turned back to her suitor. "Now Jason, I think there's been a misunderstanding here. I know we spent a lot of time together in New York but that was my grandmother's doing. You know very well there is nothing between us."

"On the contrary! Both Mrs Mansfield-Jones and my father made it quite clear that we were to be married. The papers were drawn up weeks ago. You can't throw away a deal of this magnitude for some sordid teenage passion," Jason replied heatedly.

"Deal? What deal? What papers?" Jackie demanded.

"The merger, of course. Surely you must know that your grandmother made our marriage a condition of the merger between Glow and Featherstone Beauty Lotions."

"She did what?" cried a flabbergasted Jackie. "Why would that crazy old witch do such a.. a _medieval _thing?"

"Because," came an arctic voice from the direction of the front door, "I am blessed with a little more perspective than you, my dear Jaclyn."

The quarrelling trio turned as one towards Elise Mansfield-Jones stepping distastefully into the Foreman house.


	17. Closure

"Grandmother?" Jackie said in astonishment. "What is going on?"

"Oh, you would like an explanation, I take it? Perhaps you would care to explain to me why you have abandoned both myself and your birthright. After all the money and time I have invested into you, you turn your back on me with a single long distance phone call. Deserting me in my twilight years…" Jackie's grandmother dabbed a lacy handkerchief to her eye.

It was clear her grandparent could wield the weapon of guilt with the agility of a Jewish fencer. Jackie braced herself against the stabbing words and tried to defend herself.

"Grandmother, I told you why I am staying here. Now that Steven and I have reunited, the reason for me to live in New York no longer exists. Surely you understand that there is nothing more important than true love?" Her grandmother looked at her as blankly as if Jackie were speaking a little known Cantanese dialect. She looked past Jackie to the person who was responsible for the disruption of her well laid plans. She noted his possessive grip on Jackie's waist and the stubborn set of his jaw.

"Steven Hyde, I presume?" she interrogated.

"The same," he responded, regretting that he had left his sunglasses downstairs. He felt her chilly blue eyes reading his soul.

"Are you aware what this silly chit is throwing away for your sake? I would call you an opportunist but as her choice will ruin you both I would have to amend that to a fool."

"Lady, I wouldn't go around insulting people's intelligence if I were in your position," Hyde responded just as freezingly. "Seems to me that if the only way you can have family around you in your "twilight years" is to bribe them with your millions, it doesn't say much for how wisely you've lived your life."

Elise's lips thinned to a narrow line. Hyde slouched disrespectfully against the wall. Noting the battle positions, Jackie thought _Man, this is going to be bad._

"So let me see – a pot addict alcoholic with a criminal record is giving me advice on how to live my life? You'll never see 25 with the path you're on. Which I have no objection to except that you want to take my granddaughter along for the ride." Jackie had a mental image of her grandmother blowing the smoke from a pair of six-shooters after that verbal attack. She could feel Steven's pain as his worst self-doubts were used against him. Anger rose up in Jackie, overriding the intimidation she usually felt in her grandmother's presence.

"Grandmother, Steven is my boyfriend! You have no right to speak to him like that or to judge him because he has a criminal record which was my fault anyway – wait, I never told you about his record. And I certainly never mentioned the pot. How do you know these things?"

"That is not important. All that matters is he is not a fit partner for you."

Jackie felt her suspicions rise as memory stirred. "When you first called me and invited me to stay with you, you seemed to know a lot about Steven. But I hadn't mentioned him to you or anyone in the family so there's no way you could know unless… Grandmother, have you been _investigating_ my boyfriend?"

Before Elise could respond, Jason interposed, mainly because no-one had paid any attention to him in the last 10 minutes. "There's no need to be so emotional, Jackie. Your grandmother was only looking out for your best interests. When she proposed the merger and marriage plan to my family, they naturally could not agree to the proposition until they had read the complete dossier on you." Jason continued blithely on, oblivious of the amazement on Jackie's face and the irritation on Elise's. "So you see the investigation of Steven Hyde was only incidental to the profile our detectives ran on you."

"I see," Jackie said with an eery calmness. She turned back to her grandmother and Steven was struck by the resemblance between them, not in facial features but in the basilisk stare. "So, what did your 'profile' uncover, Grandmother? A beautiful young woman made vulnerable by the recent abandonment of her parents, not to mention the break-up from her boyfriend? No pesky loved ones to look out for me and put a spoke in the wheel of your plans. I must have been a gift from heaven, the perfect pawn." Suddenly hot tears rushed to her eyes to melt the ice. "Damn!" she said brokenly, "why can't I have one lousy person in this lousy family who will just look out for me?"

Hyde felt the sadness of that plea resonate inside him, like a tuning fork that could only be heard by someone who had been through the same anguish. He gathered Jackie into his arms. As he whispered words of comfort and reassurance into her ear, she felt her pain diminish.

Looking upon the couple, Jason Featherstone was reminded of an old bible verse about how the man and the woman shall join together and become one flesh. He had a strange sense that these two separate and dissimilar people now formed one single unit. Although he could not understand why such a promising young beauty would choose an ill-dressed burn-out over him, he had enough intelligence to accept that it was so. He turned to Elise purposefully.

"Mrs Mansfield-Jones, I believe it is time to renegotiate this business proposition. As your granddaughter is no longer on the table, so to speak, I propose we just make this a straight business merger and forget about the whole marriage option, which I must agree is a rather archaic tradition."

"No," Elise cried. "That company has been in my family since my grandfather's time." She turned towards Jackie with an expression that was almost pleading. "The only way I could consider giving up control of it was if I knew it would be passed on to my descendants. Jackie, you and Jason could have a son who would inherit not only Glow Cosmetics but the Featherstone empire as well. If you were not so blinded by this ridiculous love emotion, which is greatly overrated in my experience, you would see the good sense in marrying for dynastic reasons."

"Love is not overrated," Jackie replied. "All you need is love. Love is the answer. Love will keep us alive."

"Can't buy me love," Hyde contributed to the song titles.

"Exactly," Jackie agreed.

"Rubbish. Love is a marketing ploy dreamed up by advertising agencies to sell jewellery and chocolate boxes."

Jackie and Hyde's eyes widened at this familiar sounding diatribe. "Whoa," Jackie breathed. "Steven, it looks like you and my grandmother have more in common that I would have thought possible."

Hydegave Elise a side-long glance. "You don't happen to have strong views on the government, do you?" he asked.

"Apart from the fact that they are parasitic leeches draining the life blood out of the citizens of this country through taxes and unreasonable legal restraints, I've nothing against them," she responded sarcastically.

Hyde grinned in appreciation. "Jacks, I'm thinking your grandma is a fellow anarchist underneath all that upper crust."

"Hardly," Elise sniffed. "Anarchy is for the unimaginative. The way to get the best of the ruling powers is to beat them at their own game. For example, my accountant is a master of tax evasion; he would bring a tear to a mathematician's eye."

"Steven," Jackie said excitedly, "I bet my grandmother gets the same illicit thrill when she signs her W2 forms that you do when you shoplift an 8 track." The elderly aristocrat and young proletariat eyed each other with new respect.

"Hello, I'm still here," Jason called from the sidelines.

"Yes, why is that?" Elise answered. "If you're not marrying Jaclyn, the deal is off. Good day to you, young man."

"But Mrs Mansfield-Jones –"

"I said good day!"

With sulky bad humour, Jason Featherstone stalked out of the Foreman house.

"Jaclyn," Elise began.

"Jackie," her granddaughter corrected firmly.

"Jackie – perhaps my methods were underhanded but I would not have you believe that I was using you purely for my own ends. I truly believed that the life I was offering you was the best suited to make you happy." Her grandmother sighed as she noted the bond between Jackie and Hyde, who had not broken contact with each other throughout the entire exchange. "But then, the life I was offering you is exactly the same one that my parents carved out for me when I was a young girl so I must admit I am not in a position to compare it to a life based on the softer feelings. Certainly my life until recently did have a certain empty quality. But then you came along with all your enthusiasm and pushy ways. This may sound mawkishly sentimental but the thought of going back to that huge mansion in Long Island without your young spirit in it is rather… bleak."

"Oh, grandmother," Jackie cried, clasping her relative's angular body to herself. Elise made awkward patting motions on Jackie's back in response until Hyde detached his girlfriend.

"My dear girl, forget about the merger and Jason – just come back to New York with me. Our deal will still stand."

"But I can't leave Steven," Jackie said as a statement of fact. "I mean, I would like to come back but not if it costs me my love."

"Hang on, you said you didn't want to go back," Hyde said, trying to pinpoint her motivations.

"I only said that because I was certain that my grandmother would not allow me to see you if I was under her control for the next 8 months, which is in essence what our deal was – that I would have to obey her wishes in order to earn the 5 million. Plus I didn't think she needed me – but I can see I was wrong." Jackie said.

"Indeed," Elise interjected, "I do need you to come back, Jackie, and if the price of your agreement is the inclusion of your gentleman friend," (Jackie smothered a giggle at this term) "then so be it. I will not stand in the way of your choice."

"Oh grandmother, thank you!" Jackie escaped Hyde's grasp and launched herself onto her grandmother again. "We would love to come – I think. Steven, you still want to go, right?" Jackie had remembered that inconvenient rule Hyde had made about consulting him before making his life decisions. She beamed in delight at his slight nod of agreement. "And I promise you will grow to love Steven once you get to know him."

"I will?" Elise said doubtfully.

"Oh, definitely. Although it did take me a couple of years to move past the initial loathing stage but I got there in the end. Would it help any if I told you his father is William Barnett who owns the Groove Records franchise?"

"That does help," Elise said, looking on Hyde with new eyes.

Later after her grandmother had left to check into a hotel, Jackie asked Hyde "Do you think we should tell her that your father is black?"

"Nah," Hyde vetoed. "It'll be more fun if she finds out at the wedding."

THE END


End file.
